To my friend, Ben’s, regret, this blog will be in the only language I (roughly) know: English. Enjoy…
Here at SSP, we burn the candle at both ends. My day started at 00:00 by working on problem sets. I spent my time in the wee small hours of the morning explaining a problem to Muktha. She kept poking holes in my questionable explanation. This was reasonable, since my argument amounted to “just trust me bro.”
My actual morning starts as it always does: 15 minutes before the first lecture of 9:00 AM. My roommate Jovan neglected to wake me, and my first sight of the morning was him pacing around our dorm room. Having dragged myself out of bed, I underwent my morning routine in preparation for the morning lecture.
As spry as ever, Dr. Dubson commenced his morning lecture with a simple discussion on conic sections. (After enough time at SSP, a 2 hour discussion of conics is light work.) Following a break, the discussion shifted to whether NASA should fund human space flight or robotics. As a bona-fide contrarian, of course I had to argue in favor of human space flight – the exact opposite of what is logical and rational. By the end of the discussion, I convinced myself that funding robotics is better. (I’m better at counterarguing myself than convincing others.)

Posthaste, Andreas, Uluc, Seok Yun, and I went to the dorm basement to play stingpong. The game involved throwing a ping-pong ball until the team with best aim managed to hit the other teams ping pong paddle. When achieved, the opposing team would discard their shirts, turn around, and prepare to be stricken by a high-velocity ping-pong ball. Disclaimer: there is no individual at SSP CUB named “Posthaste.” If there is someone named Posthaste, they’re late to the program and they should hurry up getting here, posthaste.
The highlight of the day was our field trip to the Gateway Amusement Park, where the main event was go-carting. Perfection happens when you place an excellent driver in a rapid cart. Perfection did not occur with me. After an abominable race, I spent way too much money buying a subpar Newton’s Cradle. Even with reduced dignity (and a reduced bank account), I still count the field trip a success. A group of unsynchronized, yet musical, SSPers serenaded our return to CUB with kazoos.


Dinner at C4C was entertaining as always. Even with the untimely departure of our beloved teaching assistant Diego, I still enjoyed my time with my table mates. (To clarify, Diego is not dead, just dating.) I even managed to annoy Ben by learning some shoddy German. “Wir sind die rundlichen Menschen” means “we are the round people.” This is a clear reference to the SSP CUB participants’ affinity for round objects. It is not a reference to the physical appearance of the typical SSP student. Don’t cancel me.
After dinner, a group of SSPers gathered on the second-floor common area to slap each other’s hands. Yet again, SSP CUB participants demonstrate their intellectual superiority through a cerebral game. Fun!

After rapidly advancing in the problem sets, my final moments of July 1st were spent massaging my friends.
Very strange.

Hi, I’m Marcus, a rising senior from Macomb, Michigan in the Detroit metropolitan area. My goal in life is to find out what type of cheese is best. (Is it gruyere or colby jack, I can’t figure out?) In all seriousness, I enjoy skiing, tennis, karate, and various creative endeavors such as playing guitar. I also love to fly, travel to foreign places, and volunteer in my local community. I’m passionate about learning new things about the universe, and I hope to study astrophysics in the future.